Asphalt roof shingles currently represent 80% of the residential roof market in the United States today. They vary in style, colors, and sizes and will continue to do so. They have a limited lifespan and are designed to be replaced multiple times during the life of the structure or home they are protecting. They are easily damaged by falling branches, hail, and often by homeowners, painters, satellite dish installers, chimney workers, and even roofers. Sometimes, the damage, in the form of holes, tears or punctures, are intentionally done by these contractors while installing equipment such as communication antennas and satellite dishes, solar panels or ladder brackets and roof safety equipment such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,549,793 and in our copending U.S. application Ser. No. 14/866,413. Other examples of such ladder brackets and safety equipment are disclosed in U.S. Patent application No. 2004/0135037 A1, U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0278037 A1 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,896,719 and 8,549,793. The installation of these devices often requires the installer to drill or puncture holes through the asphalt shingles to drive anchors into the rafters or wood sheathing beneath the shingle layers in order to secure the ladder brackets or safety equipment to the roof. These anchors may include large common nails or screws. After the roofing job is completed and the ladder brackets and safety equipment are removed, any holes, tears, or punctures must be repaired to prevent water leaks through the shingles and into the interior of the building. Regardless of how the shingles are damaged, current methods of repairing such holes, tears, or punctures simply include coating and/or filling the holes or punctures with conventional roofing cement or sealant. Although such methods have proven to be satisfactory in the short term, they are costly, time consuming, messy, unattractive and distracting from the original beauty of the shingle. If done improperly the entire hole, tear or puncture may not be completely filled and sealed and the leak will continue. And even when done properly, these methods generally fail within 7 years due to exposure to sunlight and the cyclic hot and cold temperatures which crack or dislodge this type of repair. This becomes a repeating nuisance, leak and expense for the homeowner who might have 30 years of life remaining for their shingles. If the damage is too extensive, the shingles may need to be replaced entirely, which may lead into other problems such as matching the shingles with currently available shingles or finding an available experienced repair person. Such methods require other tools such as an injecting/caulking gun and tube of sealant, or a spatula for spreading the cement or sealant from a pale of cement.
As a solution to this problem, the present invention provides an asphalt shingle sealing device that eliminates any of the drawbacks of the current repairing methods discussed supra. The present invention relates generally to an asphalt roof shingle sealing device comprised of a single flat blank sheet of metal or rigid plastic. The present invention, as described hereinafter, includes a simple, non-messy, quick and easy-to-use asphalt shingle sealing device that eliminates the need to inject or coat roofing cement or sealant into the holes, tears or punctures as employed in the current methods.